Class started last night.......

My "transition" from old PC (Pentium III 600mhz, 160 megs ram, 15 gig HD) to new PC (AMD P64 3200 2ghz, 2 gigs ram, 500 gig HD, GeForce 7800 GT OC, and X-Fi Fatal1ty soundblaster) was finished on Monday. Finished setup on the hardware firewall and re-wrote the little batch file that backs up files to the traveldrives on Tuesday evening. Now, it is time to PLAY! :p

Wednesday night, after checking e-mails, the luck of the draw of "who gets to play first" picked Silent Hunter (waiting in the wings is Gothic II / III, Trainz, The Witcher, and Oblivion).

Knowing full well just how complex this new version is (last one I played was version 1), I figured I'd better get a handle on all the buttons and controls (always a good idea). I'm still trying to figure out how to "fire" the AA gun - thought it was "enter" but that fired off a torpedo - "We sunk a truck!"

While I'm still figuring out all the controls, on the 4th tutorial, got my butt sunk twice by destroyers.

The darn convoy decided to zig-zag instead of coming right at me, like I thought they would. Wasn't expecting that. I decided to re-position in a hurry on the surface and got too close - the destroyers saw me.

Oh well, I guess that's why they're called "tutorials".

[SteamWake]

Skip Oblivion...

Yea it looks purdy but it becomes repetative fast.

The Witcher is a good game. Not exactly state of the art graphics wise but good story line, charecters, and actually deals with 'adult' subject matter.

By far though SH will be the biggest test of that new rig.

[Orion2012]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Skip Oblivion...

Yea it looks purdy but it becomes repetative fast.

The Witcher is a good game. Not exactly state of the art graphics wise but good story line, charecters, and actually deals with 'adult' subject matter.

By far though SH will be the biggest test of that new rig.

As much as I love SH4, I'd say Oblivion would be a more demanding game, especially if you force HDR and AA, but it does become a never ending game of fetch.

As far as surface attacks go I generally avoid that except for lone merchants in the darkest of nights, even if the moon is up, I'll dive.

[LeeVanSpliff]

Ahh Gothic II! One of the very best games imo!

If graphics are not a big deal for you I'd recommend Gothic (the first in the series) over Gothic 3 (G3 loses out a bit because every combat against humanoids can be solved by an insane click fest). That's assuming you haven't already played the first Gothic game.

Oh and you fire the AA gun with space

Originally Posted by Orion2012

As much as I love SH4, I'd say Oblivion would be a more demanding game, especially if you force HDR and AA, but it does become a never ending game of fetch.

As far as surface attacks go I generally avoid that except for lone merchants in the darkest of nights, even if the moon is up, I'll dive.

Yes, I heard that about Oblivion. I'll be getting a few mods to "resolve" that issue before I start playing. I had a ton of mods for Morrowind and it made things so much better that I probably won't even bother with vanilla Oblivion.

Tried another "find the convoy" tutorial last night, the darn ships just like to circle around after a while. Did manage to get my 10k tons sunk, however.

I know what you mean about demanding on a graphics card. I was extremely impressed with the graphics I'm seeing so far. I'll eventually be posting a few screen shots once I get my 'sea legs' all sorted out. I remember a lot of the commands from SH 1 (yes, the old DOS version), but there's some new ones I have to get down pat.

Originally Posted by LeeVanSpliff

Ahh Gothic II! One of the very best games imo!

If graphics are not a big deal for you I'd recommend Gothic (the first in the series) over Gothic 3 (G3 loses out a bit because every combat against humanoids can be solved by an insane click fest). That's assuming you haven't already played the first Gothic game.

Oh and you fire the AA gun with space

I still have Gothic-I here, played it twice but that was years ago (I started Morrowind in 2003, so Gothic was like ages ago). Loved the plot twists in the story-line. Might even load it up again just to see how much better it'll run on this system. I expect a lot less lagging. :p

Just for fun, took the boat out on a career jaunt. It was nice seeing the entire Pearl Harbor all set up, starting from the docking bay. Decided to see how long it took to get to Midway at Flank. Several days, it seems. Didn't save yet, as I still need to look into some mods to download and install first before I really sink my teeth into this.

[SteamWake]

Getting a little off topic here but...

Morrowind was a far superior game to Oblivion as far as the game as a whole.

I finished Oblivion in a week or so, I dont think Ive ever actually 'finished' MW.

Main thing I remember about Oblivion was.... "Gawd... not another gate "

[FIREWALL]

Congrats on your new rig Zayphod.

Enjoy them all.

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Getting a little off topic here but...

Morrowind was a far superior game to Oblivion as far as the game as a whole.

I finished Oblivion in a week or so, I dont think Ive ever actually 'finished' MW.

Main thing I remember about Oblivion was.... "Gawd... not another gate "

I might agree with you there. I liked it so much that I did an entire fanfiction for it on my website.

I have no intention of rushing through Oblivion. I'll most likely walk everywhere - why waste all that scenery?

Besides, you miss stuff when using fast travel.

[LeeVanSpliff]

Originally Posted by Zayphod

I still have Gothic-I here, played it twice but that was years ago (I started Morrowind in 2003, so Gothic was like ages ago). Loved the plot twists in the story-line. Might even load it up again just to see how much better it'll run on this system. I expect a lot less lagging. :p

Ahh, can see why you want to move on! I played G2 most (I also greatly enjoyed the Night of the Raven expansion which made the game worth playing a few more times imo). I had a lot of fun with Gothic 3 too - it's not like it's a bad game, it just doesn't quite live up to the two first.

Was busy downloading music 1941-42-43-44-45 and TM, so while those were busy cooking (downloading), I continued my test tour, first mission - USS Porpus (sorry, coffee hasn't kicked in yet, can't spel), on a mission to take pictures right inside Tokyo bay harbor.

Sure, I'm a tourist now.

Managed to make it all the way to Japan, and thanking the gods of luck that it was night time, half-moon had set and using the cover of darkness, made it most of the way into the bay area before I had to duck under the water. Still a long way on 1/3 using batteries. Got a little more nervous when I got the notice that battery was now at 50%. Still managed to conserve power by going at 2 knots only.

FINALLY in position, took several photos, got the OK that this part of the mission was complete, time to get out of Dodge.

Set course out of the bay, again, 2 knots to conserve what battery power is left. I set depth at 70 feet, not wanting to scrape my boat's tummy on the rocks below (checked the outside camera, and yes, there was only 10 feet of clearance left, so not much wiggle room there).

Stll too close to where I could be spotted and it was broad daylight, so I still couldn't surface.

All stop, wait in a low-spot until night, told everyone not to breath.

By this time, battery was at 15%, CO2 was now at 80%.
Again, guys, don't breath.

Darkness falls, again, 2 knots, saving as much power as possible. Finally get to an area I feel is safe, peek out the scope, moon is setting, so it'll be darker than before, surface, and made a run for it at full.

"....and he lived to tell the tale."

And all files downloaded. I know I have to wait until I'm done with a mission before installing thingies.